OJSC Serpukhov Automobile Plant (SeAZ) was a large engineering enterprise in the Moscow region. The company specialized in the production of wheelchairs, Oka compact cars and spare parts. Today the conveyor is stopped, and the joint-stock company is declared bankrupt.
Base
The history of the Serpukhov automobile plant begins in 1939. On July 7, the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering decided to organize motorcycle production in the city of Serpukhov. Workshops for minors, which subsequently grew to the scale of a full-fledged plant, were identified as a production site.
The Acting Plant Director Potapov and the Chief Engineer Kovalenko were instructed to accept the plan of “reconstruction” work and to complete technical documentation within five days. The government demanded to produce up to 15,000 small motorcycles per year, while the production was not equipped either with appropriate equipment or trained personnel.
However, in 1940, a motley group, consisting mostly of troubled teenagers, was able to assemble an experimental batch of MZL series motorcycles with a two-contact engine for testing. By June 1941, the company had already manufactured 180 units of motor vehicles of the L8 model with a four-pin engine. The further development of production in this direction was hindered by the war.
War years
In October 1941, the main facilities and a number of skilled workers were evacuated to the Urals. Part of the production was transported to the city of Tyumen, the second part - to Izhevsk. At a new place, assembly of army motorcycles model AM-600 was organized, and other defense products were also produced. After the Nazis were driven away from Moscow, in December 1941 at the Serpukhov Automobile Plant, repair of captured motor vehicles was organized for the needs of the front.
Design school
In 1943, the State Defense Committee decided to restore the motor industry. The city center determined the city of Serpukhov. Outstanding designers from Izhevsk were sent here to organize the Central Design Bureau of Motorcycle Engineering: I. G. Gusakov, A. E. Mamai, I. Ya. Nikiforov, I. V. Ponyatovsky, S. I. Safonov, V. I. Lozhkin, G.A. Weiner and V.M. Raven.
By 1946, a powerful design and experimental center was formed on the basis of the Serpukhov automobile plant. Until 1951, the enterprise operated as a pilot plant of the Central Design Bureau.
From motorcycles to motorbikes
The tragic legacy of the past war was a large number of people with disabilities. In order to facilitate their fate, to help them in rehabilitation and integration into society, the Central Design Bureau in 1951 developed and introduced into serial production the three-wheeled motorized stroller S1L.
Since that time, the main products of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant have become vehicles for the rehabilitation of disabled people. The design of wheelchairs is constantly being improved. In 1957, the production of the C3L model with a more powerful engine was mastered, and in 1958 the large-scale conveyor production of the C3A four-wheeled stroller began.
Since 1970, the plant has been producing the S3D motorized stroller with an all-metal supporting body, the production of which continued until 1995. In total, from 1953 to 1995, 572,000 wheelchairs of various series and modifications were produced.
Along with vehicles for the disabled, the plant produces consumer goods:
- children's bicycles “Moth”, “Baby” and “Hummingbird”;
- trailers for cars;
- shock absorbers for heavy motorcycles of the Irbitsky and Kiev motorcycle plants.
Car manufacturing
The accumulated experience in the production of four-wheel strollers has become an excellent tool for the development of the production of "compact cars". In the first half of the 80s. The Central Design Bureau of the Serpukhov Automobile Plant has developed and manufactured prototypes of a compact, economical passenger car, which later received the name “Oka”.
By order of the Minister of Automotive Industry V.N. Polyakov dated 04.25.1982, the youth teams of designers of the Volga and Kama automobile plants, as well as the Serpukhov motor factory, were entrusted with the development of the design of a car of a particularly small class. Young designers of SeAZ take an active part in this: N.D. Rakov, A.P. Popov, N.A. Pavlov, S.M. Shelestov, A.N. Galanin under the leadership of Deputy Chief Engineer I.E. Ivensky.
06/25/1985 Council of Ministers of the USSR instructs to prepare facilities for large-scale assembly of the legendary "small car" at the AvtoVAZ, KamAZ and SeAZ plants. Serpukhovites started the most significant reconstruction in the history of the enterprise. The project, which provides for the production of 10,000 cars annually on the basis of wide cooperation, is being developed by the Volga Automobile Plant and Giproavtoprom.
The production of power units and front wheel drives is entrusted to VAZ, the production of chassis units and large stamping is assigned to KamAZ plants. The most up-to-date technological solutions are being laid, including the creation of capacities for applying soil by the method of cataphoretic deposition in painting production and body welding by robots on a flexible automatic line. The construction of new production and office buildings, the reconstruction of old workshops begins.
Realities of time
The reconstruction of SeAZ had to end in the new economic conditions of perestroika, characterized by hyperinflation, a lack of defense assets of enterprises and a general decline in production. The technical and material support provided by AvtoVAZ to the plant during this period was invaluable, which made it possible to complete the reconstruction and organize the mass production of a modern car. However, in an unstable market, mainly using barter schemes, production did not expand, and was unprofitable.
The hard, painstaking work of the team allowed us to ensure the growth of car production from 3,000 units in 1996 to 18,000 thousand in 2001 and to break even in 2000. In the fall of 1999, the 50,000th car was assembled at the enterprise, and on the 4th of September 2002, the one hundredth thousandth. The economic crisis of 2008 undermined the financial condition of the company. 02/22/2009 bankruptcy proceedings commenced for SeAZ. The fate of the auto giant is sad. Today, the photo of the Serpukhov automobile plant is only discouraging, and once there was a busy life here.